According to the latest statistics from ad network Chitika, Apple's iPhone was responsible for driving over half of all North American smartphone Web traffic in July, but rival manufacturer Samsung showed the most growth during the same period.

As noted by Chitika Insights, the ad firm's research arm, iPhone users generated a commanding 52.3 percent of all North American smartphone Web usage from July 1 to July 28. While 0.2 percent down from metrics sampled in the month of February, Apple's domination of the mobile Internet space continues to impress with a share nearly double that of runner-up Samsung.

The Korean company came in No. 2 for Web use in U.S. and Canada over the same period, but exhibited growth of 1.2 percent since February, the most out of all handset makers. Samsung is now sitting with 26.4 percent of all smartphone Web impressions generated within North America.

Coming in third was LG with 4.8 percent, up 0.2 points from February. Motorola's 3.4 percent and HTC's 3.0 percent rounded out the top five, down from 3.6 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

HTC and BlackBerry suffered the worse losses since the end of February, showing respective share dips of 0.4 points and 0.5 points. According to Chitika, the drop in Web presence is the result of weak flagship handset offerings from both companies, which are struggling to find a niche among cheaper-priced competitors.

The firm forecasts even higher metrics shares for Apple and Samsung as the two tech giants prepare to roll out their latest wares in the coming months. Notably, Apple is widely expected to launch both 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone models this fall, which should account for a substantial uptick in usage directly following their debut.

A few years ago I'd see mostly iPhones being used by people like my daughter's friends...all doctors. Now I see more regular people using them, too. And when I say "regular" people, I mean more goofballs! Go Apple! :)

This should be no surprise when you have Samsung giving away phones and it is about the only phone other than the Iphone that is usable on the web.

The worldwide stats are quite different from what Chitika is finding in the US. Other OS users are certainly using their phones on the web. iOS may not even lead anymore in worldwide web usage, not that it means much of anything anyway.

The worldwide stats are quite different from what Chitika is finding in the US. Other OS users are certainly using their phones on the web. iOS may not even lead anymore in worldwide web usage, not that it means much of anything anyway.

Ever since the iPhone came out, the iPhone has held the lead in usage, and no matter how inflated the "shipments" figure Samsung keeps shilling out to investment news sites, it hasn't shaken that.

My own data for sites I operate, when you put the "all web traffic" back into the figure still shows that all android use combined is less than 1%, while Apple's iOS devices have more than three to fives times as much usage.

But context is relative. The content my sites have actually work rather well on WebKit without any "app-specific" version existing. The same can't be said to be true for the ad-laden news sites with their horrible user experience. So for newspaper sites "electronic subscription" editions, they want people to use the app, and forget the website exists.

We also need to keep in mind the seasonal nature of Samsung and Apple. Apple is in its seasonal slump while Samsung is in its seasonal peak. What is the "average" on a seasonal basis? We need to see the same data for multiple years and seasons to really understand its implications.

We also need to keep in mind the seasonal nature of Samsung and Apple. Apple is in its seasonal slump while Samsung is in its seasonal peak. What is the "average" on a seasonal basis? We need to see the same data for multiple years and seasons to really understand its implications.

I don't think that's even necessary. This just covers ad impressions via a smartphone web browser.

My guess is that 98% of my smartphone usage is via apps other than a web browser. Checking mail, weather, stocks, sports, news, social networks, etc., none of that happens on a smartphone web browser.

I'm not sure one can infer anything from this report. It's really only relevant to Chitika, who sells webpage ads.

Is this not a metric that an unscrupulous Korean smartphone manufacturer could rig? For example having code that runs in the background periodically (unbeknownst to the user) to generate a web "view/hit" to One or more of the web-sites that this data is compiled from? If so - it's pathetic that they only manage 26%.

Ever since the iPhone came out, the iPhone has held the lead in usage, and no matter how inflated the "shipments" figure Samsung keeps shilling out to investment news sites, it hasn't shaken that.

My own data for sites I operate, when you put the "all web traffic" back into the figure still shows that all android use combined is less than 1%, while Apple's iOS devices have more than three to fives times as much usage.

But context is relative. The content my sites have actually work rather well on WebKit without any "app-specific" version existing. The same can't be said to be true for the ad-laden news sites with their horrible user experience. So for newspaper sites "electronic subscription" editions, they want people to use the app, and forget the website exists.